Applicants consider crop loss, e.g. in the supply chain, to be a serious problem around the world. As a result, applicants desire, inter alia, improved compositions and methods for post-harvest treatments to reduce crop loss. By way of example, applicants desire compositions and methods that provide any number of benefits including at least one of improved disease control, increased storage life, improved application uniformity, improved application safety and reduced phytotoxicity.
Further, applicants desire compositions that are suitable for thermal fogging applications, and even more particularly, compositions that are ready-to-fog (RTF) for application by thermal fogging. Existing fogging techniques, by way of contrast, often require combining an active ingredient (ai) into a carrier such as propylene glycol or diphenylamine, usually with the addition of a heating step (e.g. to 180-190° F.) to dissolve the ai. Other traditional fogging typically uses diesel, crop oils, isopropanol, methanol, etc.
While generally effective, applicants believe existing technologies have the potential to suffer from any number of problems including: handling, storage and shipping of the ai in what is basically a technical form; operator error around accurately measuring the ai; insuring uniform mixing of the ai within the carrier; and the requirement for procuring and maintaining additional equipment to heat, pump and inject slurries to be fogged to the thermal fogger.
Various embodiments may address any number of these, or additional, problems.